Palaeo 2020

It is now almost 20 years since John Wymer (1999) completed The English Rivers Palaeolithic Survey (TERPS) and the English Palaeolithic was reviewed (Gamble and Lawson 1996). The intervening period saw great advances in Palaeolithic archaeology and Quaternary Science and huge headway was made in getting adequate protection and mitigation of threats to the resource through local planning provision and developer-funded archaeology. These developments were consolidated and directed by two Palaeolithic research frameworks and underpinned by high quality field research in both academic and commercial spheres. But progress made in the first decade of the 21st century is now under threat in the current climate of austerity. Planning provision and expertise within local authorities are being dramatically eroded by cutbacks, research funding from traditional routes such as UK grant awarding bodies and Historic England are increasingly restricted. Within our own discipline the established pathways for career progression and the development of effective expertise are increasingly limited.

This meeting seeks to address these urgent challenges as well as developing a new and radical approach to Palaeolithic research. Central to the meeting will be how we can optimise the resources available to us to deliver a new, deeper understanding about our deep past while maintaining effective and consistent protection of the resource.

Conference Programme

9.00-10.00: Registration (with tea and coffee provided)

10.00-10.15: Welcome, followed by Challenging Times in Development-Led Archaeology by John Lewis, General Secretary of Society of Antiquaries of London

SESSION 1: New Horizons in the British Palaeolithic (chaired by Prof Danielle Schreve, FSA)

10.15-10.30: The British Palaeolithic Record: New Timescales and New Contexts, by Dr Nick Ashton, FSA, Simon Parfitt, Dr Simon Lewis.

10.30-10.45: The Records of the English Rivers: Contextualising the Resource, by Dr Robert Hosfield, FSA.

10.45-11.00: The Palaeolithic Record of the Plateau: a Trans-Manche Perspective, by Dr Beccy Scott.